According to Yahoo! Sports, Ryan Braun’s name, along with others, was part of a list of Major League Baseball players who received performance enhancing drugs from a Miami based anti-aging company. Although no specific PED’s are listed next to Braun’s name, he is a part of a list that contains names like Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez and Nelson Cruz.
Back in 2011, following his MVP season, Braun tested positive for elevated testosterone levels. Normally a positive test result usually indicates steroid use, but Braun appealed the results and the appeal was upheld after questions arose with how Braun’s sample had been handled.
Major League Baseball officials have asked the Miami News Times for the records the newspaper obtained for last week’s report. Miami New Times editor Chuck Strouse said Tuesday the paper had not yet decided how to respond, describing MLB’s move as a request and noting the league does not have legal subpoena power.
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Braun has admitted to a relationship with the company, but claimed that he only consulted with them to help strengthen his chances of winning the appeal in 2011.
“During the course of preparing for my successful appeal last year, my attorneys, who were previously familiar with Tony Bosch, used him as a consultant,” Braun said in his statement. “More specifically, he answered questions about T/E ratio and possibilities of tampering with samples. There was a dispute over compensation for Bosch’s work, which is why my lawyer and I are listed under ‘moneys owed’ and not on any other list,” Braun’s statement said. “I have nothing to hide and have never had any other relationship with Bosch. I will fully cooperate with any inquiry into this matter.”
As a Brewer fan myself, I find his story very believable. I also can understand why he can’t release documents that seemingly “prove” this because they were done under contracts that probably accounted for anonymity. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how this affects him and the team and I may have to do an article on the intangible effect (I write at http://baseballrethought.com). I also wonder if the Brewers will take any steps to create a back-up in case Braun does end up having to serve a mid-season suspension.
I think the more interesting stories are Nelson Cruz and Francisco Cervelli, but since they aren’t Braun they aren’t getting quite the attention. We’ll see how this ends up playing out. As with almost everyone else in the world, I’d be fine without any more PED stories ever occurring because they’re such a headache to constantly talk about.
Anyway, nice article.
Cheers,
Steve
I agree. As a baseball fan, it would be nice to not have to wonder if any other players might be using PEDs so we can just get back to being fans of the game.